Official Feedback Thread: LWS4 Episode 4: A Star to Guide Us

[Orion Templar.4589]

@Randulf.7614 said:You don't need to break his cc bar. The healers spawn in set groups - first 1 rift, then 2, then 3 then no more healers. As long as you have about 5mins left on the timer and a reasonable group, it can be zerged from about 70/75% to 0 fairly quickly after the final rift healer wave is gone

Good to know - thank you. I assumed that failure to break his bar is what spawned healers. Looks like I had that incorrect.

[Devildoc.6721]

@pomp.7314 said:Anybody else have a problem in that Braham doesnt engage a single enemy in the Sunspear cave?

He's not supposed to, he's just supposed to light the fires, he's apparently scared of spiders so you need to keep them off him.

[Jack Redline.5379]

I very much like the story and i would like to point out a thread i posted some time ago.
en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/49838/breakout-idea-for-expansion-in-very-distant-future-xd#latesti know i wont get any answer for it but i am having literal frost on my back if i hit at least a few things notice the date when i posted it please. :)beside that i like the new story a lot. gj :)only thing would be. Please dont give more explosions and aoes in combat it is really not fun to constantly try dodging all the exploding stufff x/but beside that really nice LWS :)

[Sevifor.1925]

Strong, emotional storytelling. Somewhat predictable, but still shocking. Well done.

I loved the Deadeye fight. It was a fight about mechanics and allowed players to be creative.

Wish more dialogue was shared between Commander and Aurene.

[Snake Eyes.4127]

I am right after the open battle and tell me to run forward but then says I am out of the area and kills me on repeat did it over ten times and I can't advance on this . I am solo.

[Ssenkra Bloodroot.1028]

Had some issues with Storm Tracker. They were little things but in the end they cost me both of the achievements in the instance and left me heavily stressed out:

-The Branded Priest Lieutenant kept phasing backwards to the point that he was clear out of the border of the instance. I couldn't get to him without risk of being kicked out and when I finally killed him he was so far away from Blish that I couldn't get back to him in time to keep the other spawns from interrupting him.

-The fire attacks that were constantly bouncing off of Balthazar's sword forced me into combat so I couldn't mount. Ended up doing the first 1/4th of the last bit on foot before I could finally mount up.

-Lastly the lack of directional arrows makes the final race extremely unclear. I lost a large amount of time on the platform with the heavy wind blowing over it because I thought the game was telling me that wasn't the correct way to go.

[Obtena.7952]

My only complaint so far is that in the first story part, was that it was not intuitive on how to move the scared people around. Unless I have forgotten, no other mechanic in the game works like that. It was frustrating to just stand there yelling at them wondering why they run randomly around until you figure out the controls.

[Balsa.3951]

Best Episode so farStory great had some strong character development and I really started to care for certain characters.

I liked the things people are criticizing like the sniper and the platform jumps, because I like challenge and those things felt also very fresh.

Nothing negative to say bugs are normal at the start im sure anet will fix them.

Does this episode mean we get 3 more episodes ? or even more since it seems our mounts getting their skill bars filled up slowly

[Kelly.7019]

Spoiler Alert!

I love this new map a lot. Great work btw. I love how each area has its own unique style and color scheme. There is something to do in every little corner of the map. For some reason it seems much, much bigger. Plus the Jungle Anomaly area was fun to see. A bit of HoT Maguuma maps here in the desert. Plus there is a flax farm! It is more spread out, but still a beautiful place to visit while node farming if you have the time.

[Teratus.2859]

Title is a bit of a spoiler for those who haven't seen this area but never the less yes it was a very welcome area in the new map.

Even though it was only a small area I got a great deal of satisfaction out of being able to use my old HoT mastery's in a new content map.

It wasn't that long ago I was playing HoT content.. but when I got to this little area I couldn't contain my excitement when I saw updrafts and bouncing mushrooms xD

[Kelly.7019]

@Teratus.2859 said:Title is a bit of a spoiler for those who haven't seen this area but never the less yes it was a very welcome area in the new map.

Even though it was only a small area I got a great deal of satisfaction out of being able to use my old HoT mastery's in a new content map.

It wasn't that long ago I was playing HoT content.. but when I got to this little area I couldn't contain my excitement when I saw updrafts and bouncing mushrooms xD

i changed it, but i can't think of a better title :( i tried.

[Lucius.2140]

After the bugs (and small rant):

*Summary:

• Liked the episode been more ambitious and the better quality in characters, story and story instances.
• Was nice to have more collectables, the new mechanics and the new world boss.
• Take care of too soon releases, bugs kill the experience.

*Overview:

• I like the direction you guys are taking with the quality upgrades, but you need to test them better.

*Map:

• Didn't like the room dimensions, they also did not allow to have more hearts.
• You guys need to introduce better the hearts when they are not story progression connected (is good that they are not always tied to the story progression).
• This was more notable in the plant seeds heart.
• Please make the hearts vendors perma unlocked after the first completion, the heart completion more rewarding and add bags, etc. to buy on hearts, will help replayability and not enforce people in heart completion to buy.
• Is nice to have two adventures and not all to be races.
• Liked the use of the beetle in the map.
• Please make the giant rock in the map explorable and never do that again.
• Nice new world boss, the best of all the LSs ones.

*Other:

• Having two armor sets and more collectables was a plus.
• Sunspear refuge is good but you it generated hype, also could be better to not drop it out of the story after this released.

*Story:

• Each story instance was solid, with a lot to do, good story and not forced, overexpanded or too small.
• Liked the new strong character: Sapphire and the expanding of Koss. They are well made, specially Sapphire.
• Eir is a super terrible mother and the mist distortion of her voice make it feel like it was unnatural and not the proper progression of the story, like: we need to make - ---Braham more mature now, insert random plot conversation.
• Should have tested more the raptor escape.
• The cinematics were good and immersive., the world boss is the best for the LSs, the emotions in the story make it better
• I don't liked some parts of the plot, like the different places rooms or Kralk becoming a universe threatening thread, but thats my test.
• Didn't like the small time skip were we aren't involved: awaken are free and not in a coma state, Aurene is good and have been chased by Kralk, Dragon Guard in the after Joko meeting and we go later without knowing anything.

*Mechanics:

• The sniper fight was very interesting and the use of destructibles was good (hope to see more of them).

• The spider breeder movement and attack was good (check war of god for more uses of that mechanics), could have made her to drop us in mid movement if we did the hits well.

• The mastery felt shallow after the beetle. Perhaps you should quality upgrade them, either in quality or quantity depending of the needs and the episode.

• Allow us to replay the cinematics by a ingame menu that collects them.

[moonboi.1764]

I honestly like how Koss showed up, too me it seemed very fitting. Along with how we got into the map at the beginning, I love the small details.

The story is getting very ominous with everything above ground going to hell and I thought that was a good way to come back to “Suns Refuge”. I am absolutely in love with this episode and the emotion of it all, absolutely the best Living World Episode this season and is probably going to take the top spot out of all of them.

Zafirah....until I figured out what was going on, I was cursing all of your guts....once figured out, I actually liked it. Something completely different and didn’t expect a few covers to explode in my face. Side note, using the mounts never crossed my mind due to the gas clouds.

Omg the Aurene cinematic and the realization of what her visions were.....I was crying like a baby. One of the best, if not best cinematic for living world episodes.Blish, we have only had him a short while but this was a blow.

About the puzzle at the end of storm tracking...... I would prefer the time constraint not be so close, I understand the urgency but I wanted to look around more and with the shock of Blish..,,I fell to my death countless times and that is the only area I honestly didn’t like but then again, I suck sooo bad at any jumping puzzles.

Overall, I can not praise the Dev team enough for this episode. I am in love and to me, I haven’t felt this excited or having this much fun since POF launch.

My only reservation is how disjointed the cliffhanger at the end will feel, if the same team doesn’t do the next episode.

Keep up the amazing work.PS the new raptor mount skin should have been a complete package for all mounts, I would have sold a kidney to buy that package.

[Zoltar MacRoth.7146]

Enjoyable episode. A few things that were especially notable to me:

1. Interesting map with the different biomes and the brand cutting across. The roadways make getting around by roller beetle a breeze, and enjoyable. The water-fall is lovely.

2. The 'Bond of Vigor' mastery - always happy to get a new mastery, but this feels like oddly like a solution looking for a problem. This mastery is clearly aimed at one mount: the roller beetle. It's of little use on the other mounts, which all regenerate endurance quickly. It feels like the roller beetle was given poor endurance regen in the first place so this mastery would have a purpose when it came out. Unlike 'Bond of Life' which is very useful but used strategically, this one is a necessity. I spam it whenever possible. There's just no reason not to. It's a fix for a problem that didn't need to exist. As such, this mastery might as well not be a button on your mount's utility bar but just an inherent increase in the endurance regen, like a trait.

3. The Pet Rock bounty - I love this guy! What made it even more memorable was the hurricane that came through as we were fighting! The tension as it got closer, then we were lifted in the air, spun around and made our way back to finish the fight. Very funny! :)

4. The djinn bounty in the south-east corner who moves around, even going between the mainland and that little island - I can't decide if he's annoying or not with all that running around. It's certainly different, and kudos for that.

5. The hurricane - not only an interesting environmental effect but helpful too!

6. The repeatable hearts - I was slow to come around to repeatable hearts, since some - like the non-repeatable kind, were tedious. But the ones in this episode were alright, even pleasant.

7. The mushroom cave - a very interesting place, given the conversations in there and the ...gravity of the situation. So many possibilities!

8. Ibaru - when he had us all in his tractor-beam-rays or whatever, my chrono managed to escape with Blink and was about to deal with Ibaru when ..somebody else showed up and interfered. Was it intentional that Blink can get us out of that lock, and if so can I deal with Ibaru myself?

[Rauderi.8706]

First impressions:

:+1: Exploration has been pleasantly gentle this time around. And Springer has actually been useful! Finally.:+1: Map looks pretty busy, so that's good.

But...:bleep_bloop: Water does not seem coded for Skimmer speed.:neutral: Enemies are kinda . . eh. And...:rage: Can we please shed more than one stack of branded spikey glue thing when we dodge-roll? Sitting on perpetually 7-8 stacks because we get a dodge once every 7 seconds or so (with Vigor) ends up meaning a lot of wasted time and defensive resources in dealing with it.

Still, spirits are high so far. Curious to see where this will go.

[Arcan Blues.5284]

@Quasko.3491 said:

• Zafirah's fight: I feel like it was really unfair, idk, she was really OP compared to everything else we faced and then she'd just use finisher on us while we couldn't even interrupt her with 2nd rally skill. It was frustrating and I never want to do it again. Like honestly, she was way more OP than Balthazar, it was ridiculous.

Think positive, man! The next time we have to kill a dragon we just send her first... she might one shot it, or/and use the unstopable finisher xD

But yeah, that instance could really use a rework.

[DJRiful.3749]

Love it so far, much better.

Is Anet trying something new with instanceless story? With the new map, there is no instance loading just for story at certain point, I like it.

ps... I hate spiders... why you do this to me, Anet... :cold_sweat:

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

Just saying, for all those of us with very thorny hearts, with strange love for thing vertical and verdant-y, it's a nice to get all that sand outta boots and get a piece of your home away from home ;)

[TotallyNotJazzie.1493]

Agreed. Showed how much i miss the colour of Green. Especially after all the Sand and Purple.

! As a player that loathed Chak in all forms during HoTs prime, it was also a nice unexpected surprise that made me enjoy fighting them a little bit more than i once did.

[Rysdude.3824]

Its my favorite part!

[Genesis.8572]

I understand that Living World and the Personal Story is essentially designed as a single-player experience, but as someone who frequently plays the Story multiplayer with my flatmates, I have found the increasing trend of "instant death" and "near instant death" mechanics incredibly aggravating as group content. Because the pace of these episode instances frequently demands constant moving or instant death: e.g., fire/invisible laser jumping puzzles, sniper one-shot kills, move-move-move or die to the purple storm. There is little forgiveness, and doing these things as a group an almost nightmare. And when playing with people who are more casual than I am, then this often leaves us in situations where other players are downed and/dead, but we can do nothing about it. Note: Having to repeatedly use Revive Orbs to get across the Deadeye encounter (or other similar ones) due to how multiplaying the personal story works is NOT FUN. So we are variously stuck dead and unable to enjoy the story content unless we all die. Or we leave some dead, and they can't experience what is happening, because they are dead in one area while the story is happening in another. All of this undercuts a lot of the drama of the story. This creates an uneven experience for multiplay. It's not fun, and I hope that ArenaNet takes this into consideration when designing encounters like the Deadeye or Storm Tracking.

Secondly, my flatmates also reported that they disliked how so many trash mobs in the map (and in PoF) waste your time with mechanics clearly meant to dismount you. The result is not that that they were encouraged to fight. No, they just kept running until they were eventually out of the fight and mounted back up again. These sort of PoF trash mobs do not make for an engaging map. It just makes mobs more annoying to the point that discourages fighting.

I will also add that Braham's apology has not worked with my female flatmates. At this point, they both want Braham gone. (They also remain annoyed by Kas and Marjory as well as Rytlock Edgelord. Indifferent to Taimi and Rox.) They saw no reason to keep Zafira around, especially after she killed and injured so many members of the Pact first. Regardless of whether she was in a vision, they saw her as a liability who faced no consequences for her actions.

[VanWilder.6923]

"Welcome to the jungle"

I love it too.

[Dami.5046]

Not completed the story been too busy exploring. I am totally feeling this map. It's nice to go in a map and recognize places from the first game. Enjoyed it much more not looking at guides and working stuff out.Still miss my dervish, bless her she knows jahai buffs well.

[Manasa Devi.7958]

Some feedback about one specific event: ""Defend the Chantry's entrances against the Branded"

This event is placed awkwardly. It failed miserably every time I attempted it (4 or 5 times now) because one of the three defense locations, the one nearest the chantry WP and zone entrance, spawns large groups of level 81 and/or 82 enemies. The spawns at this location are overtuned because of the ever-present people at the WP/entrance who are not contributing (probably AFK) but counted as part of the event.

[Nogothanc.5014]

Good episode. Great map, good mechanics, interesting cinematics. But...Pristress of Balthazar is whining. Wrong. She is a deadeye. Wrong. She says be proud of the dead. Wrong. I paraphrase: "You like Balthazar? You will like Aurene. She has Balthazars magic." Wrong. Throw Balthazars sword away. Wrong. Rename Balthazar with Balthaddon.